Orthopaedic ailments and movement disorders have a direct causal impact on a person's ability to perform basic functions such as walking, reading, driving and other common activities. Good health contributes significantly to a person's quality of life and their ability to perform common daily activities and simple functions in their routine environments. Orthopaedic and movement disorders and diseases can be severely incapacitating, and occur in a wide variety of forms. Millions of people suffer from some form of movement ailment. As an example, torticollis, a condition in which the head becomes persistently turned to one side, is often associated with painful muscle spasms. The lives of individuals with this disorder are negatively impacted due to consistent pain and limited movement. Treatment for torticollis is targeted to relax the contracted neck muscles involved. Treatments include medication, physical devices, botulinum toxin, physical therapy, stretching exercises, and surgery. In most people, torticollis resolves in several days to a few weeks. A few people will develop continuing neck problems for months to years
Acute and chronic pain, loss of structural function and range of movement can occur due to disease, injury, disorders (such as malalignment), or degeneration. There are two principle types of tissue involved: bony tissues, including joints and the collagenous surfaces thereon, and soft tissues such as ligaments, tendons, and capsules.
Treatment of degenerative joint disease (osteoarthritis) is discussed in relationship to pathogenesis of five clinical entities: 1) occurring in high motion joints and associated with synovitis; 2) associated with low motion joints; 3) “non-progressive” articular cartilage erosion; 4) secondary to other identified problems (intra-articular fractures, ligamentous damage, wounds, septic arthritis, osteochondrosis); and 5) chondromalacia of the patella. In addition to direct damage to articular cartilage, synovitis and capsulitis and depletion of matrical glycosaminoglycans and proteoglycans play important roles.
The natural healing response in damaged articular cartilage is inadequate. The principles of treatment are divided into: 1) prevention or treatment of primary causes. These include the effects of track surface, shoeing, and the appropriate resolution of intra-articular fractures, septic arthritis and osteochondritis dissecans. 2) treatment of active soft tissue disease contributing to articular cartilage degeneration, including rest, physical therapy, synovectomy and administration of anti-inflammatory drugs, sodium hyaluronate and polysulfated glycosaminoglycans. 3) treatment of articular cartilage loss or degeneration, including articular cartilage curettage, subchondral bone drilling, osteophyte removal, articular cartilage grafting and arthrodesis.
In sum, methods of treatment are limited to surgical procedures, palliative (injection of steroids or anesthetics), and injection of “repair promoters” such as hyaluronic acid, none of which are totally effective.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a formulation that can be used for the management of chronic joint pain, injury or disorders.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a formulation that induces healing as well as increases joint mobility and decreases pain.